D2- Les Deux Rives - 8km ou 5km

ATTENTION 2 Starting Points

Parking and departure at the Daverdisse Tourist Center or at the Pont des Barbouillons.

The beginning of the walk is shared with D1. To see the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes (1902, built below a spring), stay on the road. Otherwise, take the shortcut and avoid part of the roadway. About two hundred meters after the two walks split, a Croix d'Occis stands out on the right-hand side of the road. It commemorates the battle that took place on August 13, 1914, between a French patrol and the enemy. One week later, Porcheresse was set on fire by the German brigade that came from Daverdisse.

The Pont des Barbouillons, between Daverdisse and Redu, was originally made of wood. In February 1803, it was swept away by the breakup of the ice and rebuilt, again in wood. The current stone structure dates from 1859.

At the Rocher de Geve, the moisture of the seeping rock and the surrounding shade create favorable conditions for the growth of maples and various types of mosses and ferns. Caution, some of these species are protected!

At the confluence of the Chicheron and the Lesse, the Research Station of the Water and Forests Administration of Groenendael studies the population and migrations of wild trout in the Chicheron spawning stream. Each year, trout of breeding age swim upstream to spawn. They seek out small, calmer areas in fast-flowing streams, with gravel beds, where they lay their eggs. Being fairly sedentary, they often return to spawn in the same place. After a few weeks, they return to the main watercourse. The main upstream migrations take place between mid-November and mid-January and during periods of high water.

The walk crosses the Lesse via the Pont des Cochettes, a footbridge that once linked Porcheresse to Redu and is still made of wood today.

Two hundred meters downstream from the Pont des Cochettes, a path on the right leads, after 600 meters, to the satellite tracking and remote-control station (ESA), built in Redu in 1964 by the European Space Agency. The walk returns to the Pont des Barbouillons along the Virée de Geve.